Athanasius, I take it to have come thus: upon the revival of the Arian controversy in Gaul, under the influence of the Burgundian kings, it was obvious to call one side Athanasians, and the other side Arians; and so also to name the Orthodox Faith the Athanasian Faith, as the other Arian. This Creed, therefore, being a summary of the Orthodox and Catholic faith, might, in process of time, acquire the name of the Athanasian Faith, or Fides Athanasii, in opposition to the contrary scheme, which might as justly be called Fides Arii, or the Arian Faith. The equivocalness of the title gave a handle to those that came after to understand it of a form of Faith composed by Athanasius; just as the equivocal title of Apostolical, given to the Roman Creed, occasioned the mistake about its being made by the Apostles. This appears to me the most probable account of the whole matter: and it is very much confirmed by what we see of several tracts wrote in the fifth and sixth centuries, dialogue-wise, where Athanasius is made the mouth of the Catholic side, and Arius of his party, and Photinus of his: not meaning that Athanasius, Arius, and Photinus were really the speakers in those conferences, but the readers were to understand the Athanasian, Arian, and Photinian principles, as being there fairly represented under those leading names.

3. If it be asked farther, why this Creed was not cited during the Nestorian and Eutychian controversy, when there was so frequent occasion for it; I answer, partly because the Creed was not particular and explicit enough to have done much service; but, chiefly, because the author had been eclipsed, and his repu

tation obscured by greater names than his, so that his authority had weighed little; and to produce it without a name would have signified less. This objection, therefore, though it might be of great force in the question about Athanasius, is of no weight at all against our present supposition about Hilary of Arles.

These are all the objections which to me occur: and they seem to be so far from weakening the grounds upon which I proceed, that they rather tend to strengthen and confirm them. And though I do not pretend to strict certainty about the author of the Creed, yet I persuade myself that none that have been hitherto named have any fairer or so fair a claim to it as the man I have mentioned. Not Athanasius, not Hilary of Poictiers, not Eusebius of Verceil, not Pope Anastasius I., nor any of that name; not Vincentius Lirinensis, nor Vigilius Tapsensis, nor Athanasius of Spire, nor, Fortunatus, nor Bonifacius, nor any other that has been thought on. From the many conjectures heretofore advanced by learned men, one may perceive that it has been judged to be a thing worth the enquiring after and as others have taken the liberty of naming such author or authors as to them appeared most likely to have made the Creed, so have I, in my turn, not scrupling to add one more to the number.

The sum, then, of what I have presumed to advance upon probable conjecture, in a case which will not admit of full and perfect evidence, is this: That Hilary, once Abbot of Lerins, and next Bishop of Arles, about the year 430, composed the Exposition of Faith, which now bears the name of the Athanasian Creed. It was for the use of the Gallican clergy, and espe

drawn

up

All

cially for the diocese or province of Arles. It was esteemed by as many as were acquainted with it, as a valuable summary of the Christian faith. It seems to have been in the hands of Vincentius, monk of Lerins, before 434, by what he has borrowed from it; and to have been cited in part by Avitus of Vienne, about the year 500, and by Cæsarius of Arles, before the year 543. About the year 570, it became famous enough to be commented upon like the Lord's Prayer and Apostles' Creed, and together with them. this while, and perhaps for several years lower, it had not yet acquired the name of the Athanasian Faith, but was simply styled the Catholic Faith. But, before 670, Athanasius's admired name came in to recommend and adorn it; being in itself also an excellent system of the Athanasian principles of the Trinity and Incarnation, in opposition chiefly to Arians, Macedonians, and Apollinarians. The name of the Faith of Athanasius, in a while, occasioned the mistake of ascribing it to him as his composition. This gave it authority enough to be cited and appealed to as standard in the disputes of the middle ages, between Greeks and Latins, about the Procession: and the same admired name, together with the intrinsic worth and value of the form itself, gave it credit enough to be received into the public service in the Western Churches: first in

"Romanæ ego ecclesiæ quasi Symbolum, incerto Auctore, existimem, hinc Athanasii dictum et putatum quod dilucide Catholicam, ipsamque Athanasii Fidem (de Trinitate, maxime) complecteretur; cujus inter Catholicos sic spectata Fides, ut ejus Communio velut tessera Catholici esset; censereturque ejus condemnatio ipsa Nicænæ et Catholicæ Fidei ejuratio; uti se res habuit in Liberio Romano antistite," &c.-Combetis, not. in Calec. in Auctar., vol. ii. p. 296.

France, next in Spain, soon after in Germany, England, Italy, and at length in Rome itself; while many other excellent Creeds, drawn up in councils, or recommended by emperors, yet never arrived to any such honour and esteem as this hath done. The truly good and great author (as I now suppose him) though illused by the then Pope of Rome, and not kindly treated with respect to his memory in after ages, has nevertheless been the mouth of all the Western Churches, and some Eastern too, for a long tract of centuries, in celebrating the glories of the co-eternal Trinity. And so may he ever continue, till the Christian Churches can find out (which they will not easily do) a juster, or sounder, or more accurate form of faith than this is.

CHAPTER IX.

THE CREED ITSELF IN THE ORIGINAL LANGUAGE, WITH PARALLEL PASSAGES FROM THE FATHERS.

My design in this chapter is

1. To exhibit the Creed in its native language, that is, in Latin, according to the most ancient and most correct copies. The Various Lections will be placed at the bottom, under the Creed. The manuscripts therein referred to, shall be denoted by such names marks as appear above, in the Table of Manuscripts.

or

2. Opposite to the Creed, in another column, I place Parallel Passages, selected from authors that lived and wrote before 430, principally from St. Austin: and this with design to enforce and illustrate my main argument before insisted on, namely, that the Creed contains nothing but what had been asserted, in as full and express words as any words of the Creed are, by Church writers before the time specified.

3. I subjoin under these, at the bottom of the page, some farther select passages from Church writers before or after the time mentioned; partly to serve as comments upon some places of the Creed, and partly to shew how some writers of the fifth century, Vincentius especially, expressed themselves on the same heads, that the reader may from thence judge whether they appear prior to the Creed or the Creed prior to them.